BackWeb Adds SMS Wireless Delivery to Push Application Server

With New Release, Company Advances Universal Push Initiative to Deliver the Right Information to the Right People at the Right Time

SAN JOSE, Calif. — December 5, 2000 — BackWeb® Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of push communications infrastructure for e-business, today advanced its industry-wide Universal Push initiative by adding SMS (Short Message Service) wireless delivery to the BackWeb Push Application Server. The new release of the Push Application Server provides e-businesses with a single communications infrastructure to deliver targeted content to users via digital cellular phones and pagers, in addition to desktop and laptop computers and email. The new release also features improved delivery reliability and email messaging performance.

By supporting SMS technology, the Push Application Server allows companies to proactively deliver mission-critical or time-sensitive information and alerts to any number of users, no matter where they are located or what device they are using. Allowing messages of up to 160 characters, SMS technology operates on the same infrastructure as today's wireless voice networks, and is supported in North America by most major carriers, including AT&T, Nextel, PageNet, SBC/Bell South, SkyTel, Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless, Bell Mobility and Rogers AT&T. Carriers throughout Europe that support SMS include BT Cellnet, Vodaphone, Orange, Te Mobil, Mannesmann, KPN and many others.

"With this new release of the Push Application Server, BackWeb is providing a single, integrated Internet and wireless communications infrastructure that allows e-businesses to truly deliver the right information to the right people at the right time," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "This reliable and scalable platform for proactive communications delivers on the promise of our industry-wide Universal Push initiative. We will continue advancing the Push Application Server to keep pace with refinements to SMS, in addition to providing additional delivery options including fax, instant messaging and voicemail."

The Push Application Server is a platform for software developers or corporations to quickly create advanced push-enabled applications, and incorporates standard CORBA and XML interfaces. The server's groundbreaking "escalation" capability pushes and automatically re-routes notifications based on pre-set criteria by the corporation to deliver the message to the appropriate device or combination of devices until it reaches the intended recipient. Working in concert with other advanced BackWeb technologies, the escalation feature identifies whether a user has received a notification on his or her desktop computer. If not, the server reroutes the information and delivers it to the next-highest-priority device of the same user or to the next user in the escalation list. Companies can determine the appropriate escalation logic for messages to maximize the chances of receiving information as quickly as possible.

The latest release of the Push Application Server also includes improvements to message delivery reliability and email performance. Messages are delivered reliably even when network or other difficulties interrupt transmission. In addition, users will see significant improvements to the performance of the email extension, resulting in faster delivery of messages via email.

The BackWeb Push Application Server Ver. 1.1 is available immediately. Pricing, which is available from BackWeb, is based on the number of server CPUs and on the number of authorized users.

About BackWeb Technologies
BackWeb Technologies is a leading offline Web software company. BackWeb extends the value of technology investments by offering mobile and remote employees offline access to portals, intranets and other Web-based applications and content. The company's products reduce network costs and improve the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce. At the core of BackWeb's products is its patented Polite® synchronization technology that can distribute large amounts of data even over narrow bandwidth connections. BackWeb® customers include market leaders such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Centocor, Eastman Kodak, GE Healthcare, Guidant, HP, KLA Tencor, Lam Research, Pfizer and more than one hundred other companies. BackWeb also has strategic reseller alliances with software industry leaders: Plumtree, SAP and IBM. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel. For more information, visit www.backweb.com or call (800) 863-0100.

Statements in this news release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities laws, including statements of beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Examples of these statements include, but are not limited to, the ability of BackWeb software to allow customers to gain mobile, disconnected use of their portals and help increase field sales and field service productivity, the integration of BackWeb software with BEA products will help developers extend portal applications for offline use without changing the way they work, and the ability of the resulting applications to help field sales and service organizations realize maximum productivity, cost savings, and process acceleration gains while disconnected from the network. Actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include unforeseen technological issues related to use of the BackWeb software, deployment issues related to implementation, unforeseen software errors, competitive factors and business and expense factors that may affect the perceived efficiencies from use of BackWeb's products, and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in BackWeb's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. BackWeb assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release.